


Lean on me

by Myra_Bones



Series: Calm before the Cyclone [1]
Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: And Paige learns to let someone take care of her, Cuddling, Fluff, It's just fluffy friendship cuddles, Sensory Overload, Toby Curtis & Paige Dineen Friendship, toby is a good friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:22:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27694088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myra_Bones/pseuds/Myra_Bones
Summary: Paige is overwhelmed after a long day at the garage, with all its noise and the people constantly around her. When everyone leaves, she just wants to appreciate the silence until she's strong enough to drive back home.Too bad Toby only went to get groceries. When he sees the state his friend is in, he knows he has to help her. And maybe show Paige that help isn't a bad thing.
Relationships: Toby Curtis & Paige Dineen, Toby Curtis/Happy Quinn
Series: Calm before the Cyclone [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033512
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	Lean on me

During the day, when it was filled with geniuses, the garage could be a cacophony of sound. Happy would be hammering a sturdy piece of metal into whatever shape she wanted, Sly might be talking about some exciting new formula or a far less exciting new fear, Walter would constantly be talking to anyone pretending to listen, Toby would be arguing with everyone and, as if that wasn’t enough, Cabe and Ralph could usually be found there as well.  
  
Paige loved it, really. She loved feeling as if she was part of a family, and she loved being surrounded by them. Most of the time.  
  
Sometimes, though, the noise was overwhelming and it was all she could do not to scream at them for doing the same things they did every day. On those days, when her jaw ached and she felt like her teeth had been ground to dust, she liked to stay late. She liked to just sit behind her desk as everybody left until the garage was finally, blissfully, silent. 

The door closed behind Walter and Paige shut her laptop with an audible groan, mentally checking everyone off to make sure they’d left. Once she’d done her mental head count - twice - she leaned back as far as the office chair would allow and closed her eyes, three fingers massaging between her eyebrows. 

Whatever deity ruled the world saw it fit to give Paige one full minute of quiet before the door opened once more. Toby strode in, a few plastic bags hanging from his wrists. Paige opened one eye to glare at the behaviorist, who didn’t seem particularly bothered as he put the groceries away. 

“Take it easy, Sleeping Beauty,” he said with a teasing grin, though it softened a bit as his eyes ran over her. “You doing okay, Paige?” 

“Why d’you even ask?” Paige debated momentarily to sit up, eventually deciding it wasn’t worth the effort as Toby had already observed her like this anyway. “You know exactly how I’m doing. It’s your thing.”

“I can see all the puzzle pieces.” His voice came from a little further into the kitchen, and Paige nearly let out a groan of joy when she heard the distinct sound of the kettle. “It helps if you tell me what the final picture is. Not to mention, talking about it can be nice.”

Paige shook her head even though she was mostly certain Toby couldn’t see her from his current position. She wasn’t motivated enough to move to find out. “I talk enough,” she said. “It’s my job to talk about emotions, remember? To try and teach you four how to deal with them.” 

“I take offense to that!” Toby’s loud voice made her wince a bit, and his next words were immediately softer. “Okay, maybe I’m no teletubbie, but I’m definitely not on the same scale as One-Ninety-Seven. Remember, emotional talks are sort of my job, too.”

He came from the kitchen with two cups of tea and a box of chocolate cookies expertly balanced on his arms. He smoothly placed everything on the table by the couch and simply leveled her with an expectant, but somehow open, stare until she gave in and stood up to join him on the couch. 

“Is that what you’re doing right now?” Paige waited until after she’d eaten two cookies and warmed her hands around the cup of tea. 

Toby had merely been sitting there, not quite watching her but not quite distracted either. She was somehow sure he could’ve waited another fifteen minutes, or more. When she did finally speak, his head tilted slightly in the same way Ralph’s did. “My job?” he clarified. “Well, yes. You see, it’s my job as your friend to make sure you’re doing okay. And if you’re not, to make you feel better.”

Paige gave him a small smile. “Good answer,” she said teasingly, though the small nudge against his arm and the look in her eyes were both sincere. 

Toby grinned back and grabbed a cookie for himself. “So, what’s got you holed up in the garage, trying to turn your office chair into a bed?”

Paige shrugged a bit, her eyes following the rivets of steam coming up from the tea. “It was noisy today,” was all she managed to bring out. 

She didn’t see Toby’s slight frown of confusion in her tea, but she could feel him shifting a bit to face her better. “I’m not saying it wasn’t,” he started carefully. “But I didn’t notice a whole lot more noise than normal. And you know that if you’d said you have a headache we would’ve buggered off. Or driven you home.”

Paige smiled a bit at that. “I know.” She looked up to meet his eyes, making sure he knew the truth of that statement. “It wasn’t you guys. It was me. I love you guys, and the garage, and my job, but… It gets overwhelming sometimes, you know? And then it feels like every sound is as loud as everything else, and it gets to be a bit much to take in.”

She didn’t know when she’d looked away from him, but she found herself telling the last part of her sentence to the tea. Perhaps she should drink it soon. 

_“Oh, Paige.”_ Besides her, Toby gently moved to rub her shoulder with one hand. She leaned into it with a soft hum. “That sounds like sensory overload to me. How often do you have this?”

“Depends,” she said, letting out a soft sound of relief when he worked at a knot between her shoulder and neck. “I’m supposed to teach you guys emotional stability. Supposed to be the epitome of control, right?” She briefly paused, but quickly continued before he could answer. His hand stilled for a second on her neck before continuing, somehow both comforting as a friendly touch and relaxing as a massage. “But everything still gets to me. And I guess there’s a point where it all just sort of overflows and it’s like everything is turned up to a hundred.”

“Such as sounds,” Toby said. Paige took a second to appreciate how quietly he was now speaking. “How do you usually deal with these moments?”

“I wait till you’re all gone and try to calm down enough to drive,” she said slowly. “I’ve… I’ve tried to drive, a few times, and I nearly crashed my car. So now I just wait till I think I’m okay.”

Toby hummed, his hand leaving her shoulder. She turned to look at him and found herself in a soft embrace. 

“Listen to me, Miss. Dineen,” he said, voice soft enough not to carry through the room like everything else seemed to. “You don’t need to be a perfect picture of stability. You don’t need to run yourself ragged every day until you collapse for us. We’d learn just as well by seeing you handle your emotions. In fact, I’m certain Walter would learn much faster.”

He leaned back only enough to look her in the eyes. “Do you understand me? We don’t want you to be hurt, or upset, when we can do something about it. When you’re feeling like this, you can always tell us. We’ll help you through it, and even if we can’t, we can at least make sure we don’t make it any worse.” When he didn’t get a response, he gave her a teasing grin. “I’ll even make sure to hide Happy’s tools. Right next to where I’m hiding myself, deal?”

That brought a weak laugh out of here, and she leaned into Toby’s embrace with a soft hum. “Alright,” she said when he didn’t speak up. “I’ll… I’ll try and say something next time. It’s just… I’m supposed to take care of the team, emotionally. How am I supposed to do that if I can’t even take care of myself?”

Toby’s fingers combed through her hair in soothing strokes, gently untangling the strands. “Here’s a little Shrink’s secret,” he told her. “No one can take care of themselves, not fully. Humans aren’t meant to be alone, we’re meant to be in large groups taking care of everyone. No one’s mind is built to function without the occasional help from others.”

“But I-”

“Ta-ta-ta,” he interrupted, though the smile on his face was audible. “My area of expertise here, Dineen. Trust me on this.” He leaned back a bit so they were in less of a hug and more of a comfortable lean. His hand fell to her arm, rubbing gentle circles on it, and she smiled a bit. His hand never strayed anywhere indecent. “You’ve been taking care of yourself for a long time. Your mother didn’t exactly help you, and then Ralph came along. Single mothers become strong by necessity, because there’s no one there if they’re weak.”

“I wouldn’t call myself strong right now.” She hadn’t meant to say it, but it came out before she realized. She felt comfortable enough not to mind. Almost protected. 

A light nudge against her arm punished her for the remark. “I’d call you strong any day of the week,” Toby said. “Because you are. You take care of five children, a company, a household, not to mention the world on occasion. That takes a lot of strength, and you show it every day. And this?” he looked down at her and tightened his grip for a moment to show what he meant. “This isn’t weak. This is recharging. And everyone needs to recharge. I think you’ve been running on an empty battery for a long time.”

Paige couldn’t find it within herself to argue any more, instead leaning her head against Toby’s shoulder. His chin lightly bumped against her head. 

“Is this what you’re like as a psychiatrist?” she asked, her eyes falling closed. The long day she’d had seemed to catch up to her at once. 

A soft laugh moved Toby’s chest a bit before he settled down. Gentle fingers took the nearly-empty cup from hers and she heard the gentle clink of it being placed in the window sill, all without Toby leaning up. “No,” he answered her eventually, both arms coming to hold her safe. “I’d like to think this is what I’m like as a friend.”

“You’re a good friend.” The words were slurred a bit. Paige wasn’t even sure she’d actually said them until Toby responded. 

“So are you.” Fingers carded through her hair again. “Get some rest, Paige. I’ll be here.”

Paige nodded against his shoulder, asleep within a minute.

**Author's Note:**

> The general feeling of this fic (AKA: Toby & Paige friendship/taking care of each other) was inspired by the works of the lovely dS_Tiff. The plot itself, the scenario and the writing are mine.  
> Go read dS_Tiff's works, they're amazing!


End file.
